Proposed Trump criminal referral goes 'to the heart' of his involvement in J6: Legal expert
On Friday's edition of CNN's "OutFront," NYU Law professor and former special counsel at Department of Defense Ryan Goodman explained the significance of the criminal referral the House January 6 Select Committee is planning to vote on against former President Donald Trump.
After months of hearings and gathering evidence, the committee will vote on two charges: obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
"Here we have a committee going to ask the DOJ to pursue multiple charges against the former president," said anchor Pamela Brown. "And we just learned just coming in, my colleague Jamie Gangel learning from a source that will include assisting an insurrection. How significant is this development?"
"I think it's a very significant development," said Goodman. "It's not one that anybody anticipated, even those of us who have followed the committee very closely. It's especially important because it's the one charge that would tie the former president to the violence that so many Americans saw on their TV sets and elsewhere."
The conspiracy charge, Goodman added, would settle a major question the American people have held for two years: "Is there any criminal liability on the part of President Trump for the violent attack on the Capitol?"
"The other charge, obstruction of the proceedings, using a lawyer to do so, or pressuring Mike Pence or using false slates of electors, those are separate," said Goodman. "And this one goes right to the heart of the violent attack, and it is going to be a more difficult one for the Justice Department to take up, so it would be important to see what evidentiary record the committee lays out."
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